An important part of an artist’s education and training is something called Master Studies. A student will study and even attempt to recreate the masterworks of art of previous generations of artists. The idea isn’t just to try to accurately reproduce a perfect copy, but to try and come to grips with the decisions and choices that the master artist made that led them to create such a beautiful and priceless work of art. As the student tries to get inside the head of the master and tries to think what they were thinking so that they can create what they created, the student can learn things about art and creation that they could gain in no other way. Jesus Christ, the Master, invites each of us to study His life and His works, and do our best to get inside His head and His heart and understand why He made the choices and decisions He made, and attempt to emulate His style and flourishes, as we try to make as careful a copy of His masterworks as we are able. Just as art students don’t always successfully reproduce exact replicas of the masterpieces they have been studying, we may not always perfectly emulate our Master. We may find ourselves trying to serve, but being less kind and gracious and selfless than He. We may attempt to calm the storms raging around us, but find that the winds and waves don’t obey our flickering faith the way they might obey His power. But I know that the more that we try to do a true study of our Master, not just mindlessly copying His actions, but really trying to understand His thought processes and the emotions that He felt as He did the many wonderful things He did, then we will grow in our capacity to make little masterworks of our own. We will find that we have sufficient faith to conquer our fears, that we have sufficient humility to endure the trials we must pass through, that we have sufficient kindness to lift up the hands that hang down and to strengthen the feeble knees. We have each been given the power to choose and to be agents for ourselves, but our Savior wants us to be more than agents, but masters like Him. And if we are to truly become masters, then we must complete our Master studies and learn all that we can about our Savior and how he interacts with the world and strive to become like Him and to be a master like He is.
